About 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide in 2025 for industrial and professional service applications, but many were acquired by research institutions and artificial intelligence developers rather than deployed for productive work on factory floors, according to data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reviewed by Reuters.

Research institutions dominate purchases

Susanne Bieller, secretary general of the Frankfurt-based IFR, told Reuters that many buyers in 2025 were research institutions and companies using humanoid robots to generate data for AI models. They were not primarily employers seeking to replace human workers.

Unitree illustrates the pattern. Nearly 75% of the company’s humanoid sales went to universities, research organizations and individual developers. The buying pattern reflects the current stage of the technology: AI models that direct humanoid robots depend on training data gathered from real machines operating in human environments, and collecting that data is the task for which these institutions are purchasing the units.

For automakers, purchases of humanoid robots remain largely experimental and have not yet represented a broad change in factory operations. Bieller said most factory pilot programs involve only “single-digit or sometimes double-digit numbers of robots.”

How the IFR classifies humanoids

The 2025 data marks the first year that the IFR has tracked humanoid robots as a separate category, following three decades of robotics statistics. Under the IFR’s definition, a humanoid must look mostly human and be capable of working autonomously in environments designed for people. It does not have to be bipedal. With 2025 serving as the first data point in the category, the figures establish a baseline rather than a growth trend.

The IFR’s figures are based on information from robot manufacturers suppliers, as well as national industry associations. Consumer and military humanoid robots are excluded from the count, while medical robots are assessed separately.

Shipment figures reported by companies such as Unitree and AGIBOT can differ substantially because the organizations use different assessment methods. They may apply their own definitions, supplier samples or reporting periods. As a result, a higher figure from one source does not necessarily conflict with a lower figure from another.

Sales data also does not indicate how many robots are actually in use, how frequently they operate or whether they provide enough value to justify their cost.

Humanoids remain a small market segment

Humanoid robots still account for a relatively small share of the global robotics market. The IFR recorded about 542,000 conventional industrial robot installations in 2024, along with an estimated 199,000 professional service robots sold for applications including transport, hospitality and cleaning.

Against those figures, the approximately 7,000 humanoids sold in 2025 represent only a fraction of the worldwide robot population, Bieller said. The IFR is scheduled to publish its complete 2025 figures for industrial and service robots on September 24.

Industry forecasts are substantially higher than the market’s current size. Bank of America Global Research expects humanoid shipments to reach 90,000 units in 2026 and 1.2 million by 2030, according to technology.org. The 2026 projection is about 13 times the IFR’s 2025 total, although the estimates use different counting methods.

China remains central to the broader robotics sector. It is already the world’s largest industrial robot market, and humanoid robots were demonstrated running and boxing at government-backed robot games in August. China’s National Development and Reform Commission has also announced a state-backed venture capital fund expected to attract about 1 trillion yuan over 20 years for robotics, AI and other high-tech industries.

The industry must still demonstrate that current pilot programs can develop into large-scale deployments in commercial and retail settings. Until companies begin receiving orders for humanoid robots in larger fleets, annual sales may remain closer to 7,000 units than to Bank of America’s 90,000-unit projection for 2026. Reuters report